Gelli Arts Artists Blog

MEET OUR GELLI ARTS® ARTISTS

Artist Coordinator – Tracy Weinzapfel

I am the mom of three great kids (a 21 year old son plus 16 year old boy/girl twins). For me, every day is full of color and inspiration. I live life with a creative edge and know that art is my calling. Most days you can find me in my art studio using all mediums; water colors, acrylics, mixed media and more to capture life’s precious memories.

I am a published multi-medium artist that enjoys sharing my passion with others! Whether it is LIVE via online workshops or in a professional setting, I love to share my passion for the craft & art industry! I have a unique and personal approach to marketing and education that is an asset to manufacturers, retailers and fellow artists! I have represented multiple manufacturers as an educator and design team member. My work and art studio has been featured in multiple publications and I am a proud member of the Craft & Hobby Association and Society of Decorative Painters.

Website/Blog: http://www.tracyweinzapfelstudios.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracyweinzapfelstudios
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twstudios/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracewein
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TraceB5

Lead Brand Ambassador – Birgit Koopsen

Birgit is married to Erik and a mom of 3. She lives in a little village called Winsum in the north of the Netherlands.

Birgit started scrapbooking in 2003 but then fell in love with mixed media and art journaling. Her favorite things to do right now are art journaling, mono printing and layered collage art. She loves to get her hands dirty and experiment with paints and inks and all kinds of mediums. Birgit’s art is mostly bright and colorful and with a lot of layers and details. She loves to combine colors that are very contrasting and works a lot with stamps, stencils, inks, acrylic paints and markers.

Birgit teaches and demonstrates in her own studio at home as well as in craft stores and at (international) mixed media events. She is also working as a freelancer for magazines and manufacturers and taught a couple of online classes like Creative JumpStart (2012 to 2017), Art Journal Summer School 2015 and 2016 and Wanderlust 2016.

Teaching brought Birgit all over the world. She had the privilege to teach in the US, Canada and Israel but also closer to home in France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Austria and the UK. She loves to travel, see new places, meet people and explore different cultures. She considers it a huge bonus that she is able to combine that with her love of teaching and inspiring people to create art.

Since 2014 Birgit has her own product line with Carabelle Studio for whom she designs stamps, stencils, art printing plates and embossing folders.

In 2016 Birgit joined the Gelli Arts® Creative Team for which she creates monthly videos and blog posts.

Website/Blog: http://www.birgitkoopsen.nl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-scrappin-life
Instagram: http://instagram.com/birgit_koopsen

Lead Brand Ambassador – Marsha Valk

Marsha is a freelance craft professional from the Netherlands, who creates craft (video) tutorials, writes blog posts and magazine articles and teaches online classes.

She loves printmaking and mixed media art journaling, but she’ll just as easily have a go at kids crafts, crochet, jewellery making, porcelain painting, candle making, glass etching, stamp carving or paper mache.

Bright colours make her happy and her inspiration comes from anything from a walk around the block to films, books, magazines, patterns, materials and works of art.

Coming from a family of makers and crafts(wo)men, she believes the ability to make ‘something’ out of ‘nothing’ runs in her blood. She has also been interested in art history, modern art and photography for as long as she can remember.

Website: http://marshavalk.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/marshavalk
Instagram: http://instagram.com/marshavalk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marshavalkpage

Co-Founder, Chief Creative Emeritus – Joan Bess

Joan is Co-Founder of Gelli Arts, and inventor of the concept of the Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate.

As author of the book, Gelli® Plate Printing: Mixed Media Monoprinting Without a Press, and creator of the Gelli Arts® blog, Joan has explored and provided step-by-step instructions for a variety of gel printing techniques. She has created over 50 Gelli Arts® Youtube videos, inspiring others to learn and broaden their approach to this exciting printmaking process. Projects she has created using gel printed papers, with full instructions, can also be found online at createmixedmedia.com.

Her work in mixed media, collage, fiber art, and handmade book arts have exhibited in numerous group shows, won multiple awards and are included in private collections.

Joan has launched three successful art-related businesses in her 38 years in paper arts. She is married to John and they will soon be spending their time between homes in New Jersey and Florida.

Projects: createmixedmedia.com

Gelli Arts® Artists:

Tania Ahmed 

My name is Tania Ahmed, and I am a crafts tutor, blogger and creative from Hertfordshire, UK. I am grateful to be able to contribute to the crafts industry in my own little way!

I love working with people and at the moment I produce creative content for magazines and craft manufacturers and teach at independent stores, craft shows and for local charities. I am passionate about sharing the joy of creating and I am so excited about joining the team! On my days at home you will most often find me covered in glitter, glue and paint :).

Blog: https://taniaahmeddesigns.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaniaAhmedCreative/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taniaahmed/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TaniaTalatAhmed

Lucy Brydon

Hi! My name is Lucy Brydon and I am an artist and art teacher living in Scotland.

I love to work in a variety of mediums but monoprinting is my main love! I love experimenting with layers, textures and making illustrative images. I love incorporating nature into my prints which takes me on lovely walks in my local area looking for interesting plants to print with.

Here in Scotland I teach adult monoprinting classes locally and also have used it many many times in school with the young pupils I teach. I have also taught in several online courses to students worldwide, both as a guest teacher and in my own solo courses.

Blog: https://lucybrydonart.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Art.By.LucyBrydon/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucybrydonart/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brydonlucy

Joanna Grant

Joanna Grant is a Canadian mixed media artist. For over 20 years she has been creating colorful and fun art that incorporates recycled materials. “Keeping even small bits out of our landfills and turning them into one-of-a-kind art for others to treasure is very personally rewarding,” she says.

Joanna draws on her love of music and nature and her work often incorporates quotes especially chosen for their messages of hope and inspiration. She is a published artist and her work can be found in collections worldwide.

Website: www.joannagrantart.etsy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JoannaGrantArt
YouTube: https://youtube.com/joannagrantart

Sara Ferret

I’m Sara Ferret! I am a mother of two children who are 8 and almost 11 years old. I live near Barcelona, Spain. I studied Business Administration as a career, but then I realized that I needed creativity in my life. As long as I can remember, I have always loved crafting. I started to study jewelry but working with metal is a very slow process. I jumped in a mixed media class in February 2009 and started to learn more about scrapbooking and mixed media. It wasn’t well known in Spain at that time. In 2012, I created a free traveling event that takes place around Spain called Scrapterapia. I learned a lot of new things and my mixed media passion continued to increase. In 2013, I started to print with Gelli Arts® gel printing plates, and since then I can’t stop printing!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraferretvall

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/saraferret

Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/sara_ferret/

Johanna Lawson

Hi! My name is Johanna Lawson. By (week)day, I’m a fifth and sixth grade Language Arts teacher, by (week)night, an aspiring artist. When not creating cards and prints, I enjoy walking through my Riverside neighborhood, where I find inspiration at every twist and turn. Whether in museums, coffee shops, restaurants, or my own backyard, I am constantly motivated by the world around me.

My ultimate vision for my company, small • batch • cards, is to organize and establish a space where artists – novice to expert – are encouraged to share their personal truths and stories through creativity and art. A place where people in my community can connect, create, inspire, and instruct.

Please visit my website and blog, www.smallbatch-cards.com. Especially see the page I have devoted to monoprinting and my Gelli® plates. I also have several blog posts where I describe different monoprinting techniques. I am not quite sure where this business will ultimately take me, but I am excited and enjoying this artful journey. I look forward to new experiences, making new connections, and sharing art, ideas, and passions.

Website/Blog: www.smallbatch-cards.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smallbatchcards/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallbatchcards/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallbatchcards
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFrtpJW9Iu99A0OQWRSo50g?view_as=subscriber

Helen O’Hara

Helen O’Hara is a mixed-media, textile artist and art educator living in Western Australia. Helen is mostly self-taught although she trained as a primary school art teacher before emigrating from the United Kingdom to Australia. She loves combining materials and techniques and repurposing objects, materials and tools in new ways unimagined by their manufacturers. Helen’s art often combines printing of many types with drawing, collage and stitch. Themes include nature, geology, cosmology and architecture represented in abstract ways. Helen also enjoys art journaling as a kind of everyday therapy.

Helen runs art workshops in her local community and is a member of several artists’ groups around Perth including the 84 Contemporary Textiles Group, Textile Arts and Mixed Media Inc, The Western Australian Quilters Association and The Embroiders Guild.

You can often find Helen’s work on show at the Zig-Zag gallery or at the Quiltwest exhibition in Perth. She is a real collector and hoarder of art materials and scraps and has named her blog “The Hoarders Art Room” after this trait.

Website/Blog: https://thehoardersartroom.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHoardersArtRoom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRqxWD4kOlidH6IFycwuo4A/

Bob Pennycook

Bob has been a full-time artist for 25 years. He works from a country studio, a little west of Ottawa, creating landscapes in acrylics, oils and prints.

He spent several years in the decorative painting industry creating and publishing 13 how-to books and dozens and dozens of magazine articles. He also taught art classes throughout North America.

In 2008, Bob eased out of decorative painting to spend more time on his fine art. About four years ago he discovered Gelli Arts® plates and his interest in printmaking, an art medium he hadn’t explored since art college, was revived.

He spends his days creating large landscapes and small prints. Some days he teaches in his studio; some days he teaches large classes outside the studio.

He is an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists, an elected member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, a Golden Artists Educator, and his work is represented in two galleries in eastern Ontario.

Website: http://www.bobpennycook.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bobpennycook
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobpennycook
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bobpennycook
Email: bob@bobpennycook.com

Catherine Tonning-Popowich

Born in Michigan to artistic parents, Catherine has been creating art her entire life. She has explored many mediums such as china painting, watercolors, oils, pastels, airbrushing, printmaking, and sculpture. Painting and printing with water media on various surfaces is what she is currently working with. She is also exploring and experimenting with vivid color schemes.

Catherine holds an associate degree in commercial art as well as in fine arts. Her experience in both artistic realms resonates through her style, and it is her ability to capture fine details that makes many of her pieces seem more like photographs than paintings. While she is well-versed in painting botanicals and other organic forms, Catherine’s wildlife portrayals have gotten a great deal of exposure.

Her passion and talent for creating wildlife art, created an opportunity for her to be Potter Park Zoo’s artist-in-residence in Lansing, Michigan, where she held wildlife painting classes that were accessible to all ages and she also completed and exhibited a series of paintings of the zoo’s animals in 2013. Among other projects, in 2014 Catherine was asked to spearhead a project at the Ingham, Eaton & Clinton Community Health Facility for their Creative Recovery Program where she designed a mural that was permanently installed in the CMH lobby, created by the community of the center.

In 2017, with a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing she developed the “Art Has No Barriers” program. The program reaches out to students regardless of their age or ability and opens doors for them to share their emotions and stories that they otherwise would not have had access to. Catherine’s intent with this program is to build bridges and encourage students to see commonalities between themselves and others, regardless of abilities.

Most recently Catherine has been working with Gelli Arts to bring the exciting world of mono printing to her students. She is showing them how to make lots of prints and all the fun things they can do with them such as collage art, journal making, card making and framed art just to name a few.

Website: http://catherinetonning.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/C.L.Tonning.Artist
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/catherine_l._tonning/

Kirsten Varga

I am a wife, mother, artist and elementary art teacher. I have a Bachelors of Fine Art from the University of Arizona. I worked as a graphic designer and taught art classes to adults before my four sassy daughters came along. Nowadays I get to teach art in a classroom filled with little artists. They inspire me and I learn so much from them!

I enjoy using vibrant colors, bold patterns and yummy texture in my artwork which incorporates both found papers and my own handmade patterned papers. I draw inspiration from the ideas of home, family and self. I create many different types of art from paper, fabric, bookmaking and three-dimensional artworks. I love to learn and try new techniques!

Blog: http://smilingeyestudio.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smilingeyestudio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirstenvarga/

Giovanna Zara

I’m a tutor, blogger and designer from Sardinia, Italy.

I started as a scrapbooker more than 10 years ago, and then I fell in love with Mixed Media: painting, mixing colors, materials and styles. I love to make Altered Art, Stamping, Art Journaling and I like to use alternative/recycled materials in my projects. When I was given a sewing machine, fabric and sewing became a new world to discover.

In my artworks I usually use vibrant and bright colors and during my workshops and video tutorial I do my best to share this passion with others!

Website/Blog: http://giogiocraft.it
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giogiocraft
Instagram: https://instagram.com/giogiocraft/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/giogiocraft

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Philadelphia, PA All rights reserved.